Tag: France

Skiing in Avoriaz

Our last outing with CERN Ski Club took place in Avoriaz. We skied to a beautiful, blue sky with almost no clouds, in abundance of snow and in good moods. It’s amazing how much progress we did thanks to these five days with instructors. I mean, I put my skis for the first time this year and now I am able to go down a red piste without problems.

We both got into skiing but I have to admit I miss hiking. I feel like going snowshoeing soon, to have a bit more contact with mountains. With the skis everything is fast, there’s not that much time to take in the vastness of mountains. I guess ski touring would be sport for us but that’s maybe for the future 🙂

(That’s Dents du Midi on the left – our biggest trophy so far):

Skiing in Les Contamines

This week’s outing was in Les Contamines in French Alps. This is by no means the prettiest ski resort I have seen so far, it’s a pity I had visibility only for a very short period in the morning. Still, it’s better luck than Radek had as he skied in blizzard and mist and haven’t seen anything. I hope to go there one more time to show him the beauty of mountains around.

Within half an hour the weather turned from what you see in the upper photos into this:

In any case, we had lots of fun both on the pistes and in the lifts 🙂

Skiing in Saint-Gervais

CERN ski course outing number 3 – Saint-Gervais. Every week I get better and better at skiing. It makes me so happy to see my progress but most of all, it becomes more and more fun on the slopes. Of course, I am still in my „a bit scared” phase when on the skis but I gain confidence with every hour.

Both days were kind of gloomy, Radek had slightly better weather than I did. Nevertheless, it didn’t really matter because the nature still  looked spectacular. I just love winter mountains.

Skiing in La Clusaz

Ski adventure continues… This weekend we’re in La Clusaz. Our second outing with CERN Ski Club was a real blast. We had been closely observing the weather the week before as the snow level in the Alps was rather alarming. Fortunately, just a night before Saturday temperatures had dropped and it had been snowing. What a relief 🙂
My turn was on Saturday. I had rather difficult conditions as it was pretty cold and it was snowing all the time. You won’t see many lovely photos from my outing but nevertheless I enjoyed the views even if they were a bit misty. I managed to go down a blue piste for the first time in my life – a challenge that was rewarded by the sunny spells!

Radek had more luck on his day as it was bright and sunny all the time. I can’t really say a lot about his outing as I wasn’t there but I can assure you he had lots of fun. He’s getting way ahead of me with his skills, I really need to catch up!

Ski Adventure begins: Les Gets

Longly awaited by us skiing course has begun! The next 5 weekends in a row we will spend on pistes, doing shu shu shu. I am very happy that we get to try yet another new thing for us. It’s a pity that we won’t exactly share this experience with Radek. I mean, we will share it but separetly, as I attend the course on Saturdays and Radek on Sundays. Also, our level is a bit different as my husband already did some skiing last year and I am a complete rookie. This also means that our blog will be flooded by poor quality cell phone photos but on the other hand I promise you lots of beautiful winter mountains landscape.
On our first outing we went to Les Gets. Although the snow is nearly non-existent, for a beginner like me it was just fine. I had lovely weather, some nice views and lots of fun. I already know I like skiing 🙂 Keep your fingers crossed that I don’t break a leg.

Discovering autumn in France and Switzerland

Last day of autumn is past and calendar winter has begun. Although it not always feels like winter, I am happy for the colder days that are to come. This year I am going to explore winter mountains like never and I am looking forward to it. But for now – a couple of autumn photos from this year.

Broc:

Gruyères:

Challex:

Gstaad:

Nyon:

Salève:

You can find more autumn photos in my latest post here.

Autumn in my village

I have been walking a lot with my son, mostly around my house which is situated in such a nice neighbourhood. Just a stone’s throw from my place there is a little river that gets pretty lively after rainfalls, there’s a lovely footpath leading to a flock of sheep, there are many playgrounds and sports fields. It’s nice to watch how the seasons change and alter the places I know like the back of my hand. It’s less boring that way!

Sheep are my favourite, especially when they have young. Oh dear, it makes me scream: CUTE ALERT!

But it’s not only animals that grab my heart. The omnipresent nature and mountains make me feel at ease with my life. I really love living here. There are pros and cons of being an expat but the mountains will always cover it all for me.

Sledging at Petit Mont Rond (1533 m)

It’s already winter in mountains. Maybe not too fierce one but there’s enough snow to go sledging with our baby boy. We decided to hike to a neighbouring Petit Mont Rond which was more of a walk to us. Starting from Col de la Faucille where there was snow already, we mounted our little one on a sledge and followed the now unused ski pistes.

The day turned out to be pretty favourable for our outing. Although the skies have been covered with clouds, every now and then we had a sun spell that would cover the world with a nice yellow glow.

When we reached the top we were stunned by the view. Clouds were high enough not to cover the Alps chain so we saw all of it! Spectacular.

After a while of photo taking, nature gazing and snow play, we went down on a sledge ride. It’s way faster than the way up 🙂

Pointe de Tardevant (2501 m)

This weekend Ania planned the last hike before a trip to Poland and maybe even last in this season. She gathered a group of people and prepared for starting early Saturday. Unfortunately she got sick during night and she passed the torch to me.

We started climbing to our first destination – Lac de Tardevant (2110m) where we made a small stop for pictures.

Together with Ania we have hiked a lot this summer but we never had a perfect weather with perfect visibility. This October hike was the firs this year when for all day long there was no even a smallest cloud.  

We had the perfect view – from Mt. Blanc to Jura. Hiking with such conditions is pure pleasure, especially that even though we had full sun it was not hot.

After year of hiking I felt in Haute-Savoie Alps like in home. I was able to recognize lots of peaks around me and that feeling that I hiked lots of them was awesome 😉